Italy
Maresciallo Giuseppe Mottet
Italy
Maresciallo Giuseppe Mottet
Giuseppe Mottet was born in Fontanemore (Aosta) on 12 September 1912.
Two years later the whole Mottet family moved to Paris reaching the father who was already there, working as a co-owner (together with his brothers) of a repair shop and a Taxi service.
Mottet showed great interest for both sports and mechanic and on 24 August 1934 obtained the French flight licence, a difficult document and certainly not a cheap one!
On April 1935, Mottet left Paris and came back to Italy, enrolling in the Regia Aeronautica.
He was given immediately the rank of Sergente pilota, without having to follow any courses and in a few months he had managed to be checked out on the Fiat CR.30 and CR.32. He was thus assigned to 3o Stormo in Malpensa.
In 1937, he volunteered for the Spanish Civil War and was assigned to 20a Squadriglia, XXIII Gruppo "Asso Di Bastoni", flying Fiat CR.32s.
On 2 June 1937, he claimed an I-15 over Segovia.
A shared Tupolev SB-2 bomber was claimed on 6 June over Escorial.
On 6 July, he claimed a second I-15, this time over Madrid.
A third I-15 was claimed on the following date, 7 July, again over Madrid.
On 27 July, he claimed a shared I-16 over Madrid.
A shared Tupolev SB-2 bomber was claimed on 24 August over Escorial.
On 12 October, the Republican Air Force intervened heavily to support International battalions and tanks in an attempt to break through the enemy lines at Fuentes del Ebro.
During the day, the VI Gruppo lost a good part of numerical, considering that part of the 31a Squadriglia had previously been detached to Cordoba. Therefore, immediately the same morning, the Comando dell’Aviazione Legionaria ordered the XXIII Gruppo to transfer to Sanjurio (Zaragoza).
At 10.30, 29 CR.32s led by Maggiore Andrea Zotti, took off from Almalučz and arrived over Sanjurio around noon. However, before landing, Maggiore Zotti decided to lead his pilots to explore the area between Villafranca and Fuentes del Ebro. Here they spotted four Polikarpov RZ “Natachas” escorted by nine I-16s “Ratas” (above them) and 15 I-15 “Curtiss” (below them). The Italian fighters attacked the Republican aircraft and at the end of the dogfight, that lasted about fifteen minutes, the Italians claimed seven (eleven according to other sources) fighters destroyed for no losses, although several CR.32s were hit and damaged. Combat was very hard for the Italians because their fighters were weighted by pilots’ personal luggage. Pilots that scored, either individually or jointly, were Sergente Mottet (1 I-16), Sottotenente Giampiero Del Prete, Capitano Antonio Larsimont Pergameni (CO of the 20a Squadriglia), Sergente Francesco Penna, Sottotenente Aldo Felici, Capitano Enrico Degli Incerti (CO of the 19a Squadriglia) (1 I-16), Sottotenente Pio Tomaselli (19a Squadriglia), Franco Lucchini (19a Squadriglia), Capitano Guido Nobili (CO of the 18a Squadriglia), Sergente Maggiore Giovanni Carmello (18a Squadriglia), Sergente Carlo Dentis, Sottotenente Giuseppe Enrico Zuffi, Sergente Federico Tassinari (19a Squadriglia), Sergente Maggiore Alfonso Mattei and Sottotenente Bruno Trevisan. It seems that Lucchini’s, Tassinari’s and Mattei’s claims was a shared between these three pilots.
Mottet’s claim was his last in Spain.
Mottet flew about 90 missions during his tour in Spain, for the main part escort flights to bombers and field protection sorties. He was involved in ten combats with Republican aircraft.
At the end of his tour of operations in Spain, Mottet had received two decorations for gallantry and was assigned to 53o Stormo based in Caselle (Torino).
He managed to be chosen as a member of the acrobatic flying-team of the unit and he received an official note of praise for the courage and ability shown during the exhibitions in Rome when Hitler visited Italy.
In 1939 he suddenly received an order to transfer to the 411a Squadriglia in Africa Orientale Italiana (A.O.I.) (Eastern Africa). Before leaving however, he managed to be checked out on the Fiat CR.42 and (highly unusual for a fighter pilot) on the Savoia Marchetti S.79.
He arrived at Addis Abeba on 30 August.
From 10 June 1940 until the surrender of Gondar (27 November 1941) his logs reported reconnaissance flights, strafings and aerial dogfights. The main operations flown by Mottet were ground support to the Italian troops, and he received another official citation for his determination in effecting the missions.
He took part in a strafing mission against enemy airfields on 7 August.
On 14 November 1940 he flew as number two in a section of two aircraft when they were involved in combat with four unknown enemy aircraft over Gimma airfield. Three of the aircraft were claimed shot down and this was later confirmed.
Maggiore Malavolti, the Squadriglia commander, described this incident in his commendation to Mottet's Medaglia d'argento al Valore Militare.
These claims have not been possible to verify against British sources.
Since Mottet's sixth claim hasn't been possible to find it is possible that he claimed one of the aircraft. It is however also possible that the aircraft were claimed as shared or all by the other pilot.
On 9 December he took part in a strafing mission and returned to his base with a damaged aircraft.
On 9 April 1941, he was engaged by Hurricanes over Gimma while defending the base flying a Fiat CR.32 together with another fighter.
Captain Frost and Lieutenant Howitson of 3 SAAF Squadron, whom engaged him in a hard dogfight, shot him down. During the combat a burst of fire cut the Fiat's controls. Mottet attempted to land but in doing so he collided with an obstruction and crashed. The aircraft was a write off but Mottet was unhurt.
Mottet claimed that he had been involved in combat with six Hurricanes and that he had damaged two of them. In fact there had been five Hurricanes, three strafing the airfield (and later also shooting down the second CR.32) while Frost's section consisting of him and Howitson provided cover.
3 SAAF Squadron didn't sustain any losses.
With the inevitable worsening of the military situation, since the start of 1941 all the main Italian strongholds fell one after another. The only left was Gondar where, since May 1941, considering the fighter flown there by Mottet from Somalia, the Regia Aeronautica was composed by three CR.42s and one transport Ca.133.
Due to the scarceness of ammunitions in the theatre he modified with the help of his mechanics his CR.42 by deleting one 12.7mm machine-gun and replacing it with a 7.7mm one.
On 2 July 1941 Mottet and Sergente Maggiore Antonia Giardinŕ claimed one shared Vickers Wellesley. This was Wellesley L2713 of 47 Squadron, which was shot down over Gondar, the aircraft falling in flames. The pilot Sergeant Alexander George Brown (RAF No. 564096) and his crew were all killed.
Brown, aged 28, and his crew are buried at Asmara War Cemetery, Eritrea.
On 9 July five Wellesleys of 47 Squadron raided Gondar. Mottet alone intercepted the raid and claimed one of the bombers shot down.
In fact one of the bombers were slightly damaged.
In a report from 411a Squadriglia on 11 August it was reported that he had flown 160 hours of combat missions from 22 August 1939 to date.
On 15 October he was promoted to Maresciallo at Gondar.
From 31 October, after the death of his CO Tenente Malavolti, he was the only Italian fighter pilot in A.O.I.
On 22 November 1941 the last CR.42 (MM4033) in A.O.I., flown by Mottet, was sent out and attacked British artillery at Kulkaber. Lieutenant Colonel Ormsby, the CRA, was killed with the one burst of fire it fired. This was Regia Aeronauticas last sortie to be flown in the East African campaign.
Upon landing, he destroyed the CR.42 and joined the Italian troops, fighting until the surrender five days later.
During his time in AOI he was decorated with the Medaglia d'argento al Valore Militare.
Mottet ended the war with 6 biplane victories and a total of 6 destroyed.
When the war ended in 1945, Giuseppe Mottet came back from prison and asked to again join the Italian Air Force. This was accepted and he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant and was then assigned to Lecce Flying School, flying with Macchi C.205s.
On 1948 Mottet was promoted to Captain and assigned to 5o Stormo Caccia in Vicenza, equipped with Spitfire Mk.IXs.
On 30 March 1950, while flying a training flight with a new pilot, the engine of his Mk.IXc MM.4025 caught fire. Captain Mottet kept on flying to avoid baling out over Vicenza thus risking that the plane could crash in the city. He instead managed to nurse the smoking plane back to the airfield but, while making the last turn to land, the engine seized and Mottet was forced to attempt a crash landing in a field. Unfortunately one wing hit some trees and the Spitfire crashed. Mottet was extracted from the wreck still alive but in desperate conditions and he died a few hours later.
During his career he had also been decorated with one Medaglia di bronzo al Valore Militare and one Medaglie d'argento al Valore Aeronautico.
Claims:
| Kill no. | Date | Time | Number | Type | Result | Plane type | Serial no. | Locality | Unit |
| 1937 | |||||||||
| 1 | 02/06/37 | 1 | I-15 | Destroyed | CR.32 | Segovia | 20a Squadriglia | ||
| 06/06/37 | 1 | SB-2 | Shared destroyed | CR.32 | Escorial | 20a Squadriglia | |||
| 2 | 06/07/37 | 1 | I-15 | Destroyed | CR.32 | Madrid | 20a Squadriglia | ||
| 3 | 07/07/37 | 1 | I-15 | Destroyed | CR.32 | Madrid | 20a Squadriglia | ||
| 24/07/37 | 1 | I-16 | Shared destroyed | CR.32 | Madrid | 20a Squadriglia | |||
| 24/08/37 | 1 | SB-2 | Shared destroyed | CR.32 | Escorial | 20a Squadriglia | |||
| 4 | 12/10/37 | 10:30- | 1 | I-16 | Destroyed | CR.32 | Villafranca-Fuentes del Ebro | 20a Squadriglia | |
| 1940 | |||||||||
| 5? | 14/11/40 | 1 | Enemy aircraft (a) | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | Gimma airfield | 411a Squadriglia | ||
| 14/11/40 | 1 | Enemy aircraft (a) | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | Gimma airfield | 411a Squadriglia | |||
| 14/11/40 | 1 | Enemy aircraft (a) | Destroyed | Fiat CR.32 | Gimma airfield | 411a Squadriglia | |||
| 1941 | |||||||||
| 09/04/41 | 1 | Hurricane (b) | Damaged | Fiat CR.32 | Gimma airfield | 411a Squadriglia | |||
| 09/04/41 | 1 | Hurricane (b) | Damaged | Fiat CR.32 | Gimma airfield | 411a Squadriglia | |||
| 02/07/41 | ˝ | Wellesley (c) | Shared destroyed | Fiat CR.42 | Gondar | 411a Squadriglia | |||
| 6 | 09/07/41 | 1 | Wellesley (d) | Destroyed | Fiat CR.42 | Gondar | 411a Squadriglia |
Sources:
Most information by Roger Juglair kindly provided by Ferdinando D'Amico.
Ali in Spagna - Giuseppe Federico Ghergo and Angelo Emiliani, kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
Ali nella tragedia - Giulio Lazzati, 1970 Mursia, Milan, ISBN 88-425-2132-9, kindly provided by Stefano Lazzaro
Assi Italiani Della Caccia 1936-1945 - 1999 Aerofan no. 69 apr.-giu. 1999
Aviatori Italiani - Franco Pagliano, 1964 Longanesi Milano, kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
Aviabrigada X - Alfredo Logoluso, 2001 no. 97, 98 and 99 of Storia Militare (October-December 2001), kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo
Dust Clouds in the Middle East - Christopher Shores, 1996 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-898697-37-X
Guerra di Spagna e Aviazione Italiana - Ferdinando Pedriali, 1992 USSMA, Rome, kindly provided by Stefano Lazzaro
Il 23o Gruppo Caccia - Nicola Malizia, 1974 Bizzarri, Roma, kindly provided by Stefano Lazzaro
Le giovani aquile – Antonio Trizzino, 1972 Longanesi Milano, kindly provided by Stefano Lazzaro
Quelli del Cavallino Rampante - Antonio Duma, 1981 Editore Dell'Ateneo, Roma, kindly provided by Stefano Lazzaro
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Extracts from the flight-log of Serg. Pil. MOTTET Giuseppe - Historical Air Branch of the Italian Air Force via Roger Juglair kindly provided by Ferdinando D'Amico.
